Ellis Brover is the former CIO of Toyota Australia and an Independent Board and Executive IT Advisor. He has a proven track record over three decades of building and leading world-class IT organisations and his experience spans a range of roles and industries, from startups to multi-nationals. In this episode of Crisis Talks, we talk about the changing IT landscape over the past few decades, the nature of cyber threats and how they have evolved, and the importance building trust in your crisis teams when preparing for the worst case. We delve into one of his experiences as the CIO of a globally recognised brand that was targeted by an extremely complex cyber attack. His experience navigating the challenges of a cyber crisis is a must listen for business leaders, IT executives and cyber teams in any organisation.

“Data should be treated as a liability - not an asset” - Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus With recent high profile cyber attacks targeting Medibank and Optus, Australian boards are scrambling  to understand the risks a cyber attack may present to them and what they can do to prevent, prepare and respond. In this episode of Crisis Talks, I speak with Claire Pales and Anna Liebel, Co- directors of The Secure Board, and co authors of the book with the same title.   They share their insights into how a board’s understanding of risk management can be applied to cyber risks and how boards and executive teams can further enhance their cyber resilience.  We discuss the following : Data privacy and governance Cyber risk management Ransom decision processes Databreach preparedness and response Crisis response.

From Bushfires to Global Cyber Attacks and COVID, Toll’s response to these events is an excellent case study in resilience. In this episode, I talk through these crises with Toll’s Managing Director, Thomas Knudsen and capture his insights into cyber attacks and supply chain resilience.

Brian Walsh is the head of Corporate Affairs, Government and Communications for the Australian Football League (AFL). In this episode we discuss the role of corporate affairs leaders in organisations and how the AFL navigated their way through the emerging COVID Crisis.

Charlton Clark embodies the saying, "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics."   Imagine having to plan and prepare for an operation that is 2 years away? How would you select the right people and the equipment needed for the task two years before that task is required and ensure that they are all in position and capable to perform that task on that given day?  In this episode of Crisis Talks, I interview Charlton Clark, the General Manager Antarctic Operations and Safety at the Australian Antarctic Division. We talk through some of the extreme planning considerations they apply every day to preempt, prepare and prevent crises in the world's most hostile environment.     This episode is a must listen for anyone in the Logistics, Safety and Risk fields. 

11 Years on from the Anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Crisis, we pick up from the moment the Crisis team observes the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig sinking in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent environmental disaster that ensued. In this episode, we talk through the shift in the response objective from People to the Environment and the realisation that Clint and others felt when confronted by the enormity of the environmental catastrophe. Importantly, we also explored the indelible impact that this disaster had on Clint and his colleagues and the juxtaposition of their desire to respond professionally, whilst acknowledging the failures that led to the incident occurring.    This series is an excellent insight into the importance of integrating risk management, prevention, preparedness, response and recovery under one consistent framework, and the impact that these events have on the people who are charged with responding to them. 

On the 20th April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers, injured 17 more and resulted in the largest marine OilSpill in history.  Clint Honeycutt was one of the BP Health and Safety Advisors at the time and was activated as a part of the Company Incident Management Team to respond to the incident. In this multi part series, we discuss his experience working through the immediate response as a part of the incident management team. We discuss the following:  -Oil and Gas Emergency Preparedness Arrangements -Lessons learnt from previous incidents -The importance of training and exercising. -The immediate activation and response and the moment the rig sank.

From a 15 year old volunteer firefighter in Duffy’s Forest Fire Brigade in 1985 to leading 70,000 firefighters during the response to the 2019-2020 fires, Shane Fitzsimmons rise to being the most trusted face in the bushfire crisis has been a story of resilience, hardship and humility. From losing his father in a routine back-burning operation to overseeing the fire season which claimed the lives of community, volunteer and international firefighting professionals, the qualities that stood out to all of us was his calmness, empathy and authenticity.  In this episode of Crisis Talks we talk about the season that was; his insights into crisis leadership; what his new role as Resilience Commissioner holds for him; and the leadership legacy he wishes to leave. 

Shocked by a sudden and harsh lockdown in India in the early days of the pandemic, thousands of Australians turned to their High Commission and Foreign Affairs teams for advice on what to do, only to be told that there was no plan to help get them home. Enter Sanskrit student and English Teacher Simon Quinn, who wouldn't take no for an answer and set about coordinating his own repatriation plan, armed only with a facebook page and loads of initiative.

“The leaders who can lead from a place of compassion and empathy and really understand that we are all suffering, then I think they’ll achieve great things.”   Interested in an expert’s perspective on the US’ response to the pandemic? Regina Phelps is an internationally recognised expert in the field of crisis management, continuity planning and exercise design. She is the founder of EMS Solutions Inc, (EMSS) and since 1982, EMSS has provided consultation and speaking services to clients in four continents. During this episode we compare the US’ pandemic response with Australia’s; we discuss the difficulty in delivering a consistent strategy in any crisis; the importance of leadership during a crisis; and how more women can get involved in the field of emergency and crisis management. 

"You can have the greatest resources in the world, but the weights aren't going to lift themselves".  Tarkyn Lockyer is a 227 game champion of the Collingwood Football Club who now heads up the Australian Football League's National Talent Development Program. In this episode of Crisis Talks, we explore some of the highs and lows of his amazing career, from the disappointment of missing the 2010 premiership selection, his transition to coach in the same club and how he has found his own leadership style with the help of some amazing mentors. From no. 34 in the rookie draft,  to 227 game veteran, Tarkyn's shown amazing determination and a willingness to learn from those around him. He talks about the importance of feedback in development, how he has adapted his leadership style from player to coach and the importance of strength - based leadership in moulding high potential talent into high performing teams.

Justin Dunlop leads Ambulance Victoria’s response to public crises as the Director of the Emergency Management Unit. In this Episode, we talk about the simple strategic objectives his team has applied to ensure the safety of staff and the continuity of service for Ambulance Victoria during the CoronaVirus Pandemic. His insights are a masterclass in adaptive planning and leadership. Since 2004, Justin has been involved in managing Ambulance Victoria's response to major public events including the 2009 Black Saturday Fires, 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu, 2010/11 Victorian Floods, 2014 Heatwave, 2015 Ebola, 2016 Thunderstorm Asthma, 2019 Victorian Bushfires, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. As a paramedic for more than 23 years, Justin is also the secretariat for the Emergency Management Forum of the Australasian Council of Ambulance Authorities.  His passion to serve the community is evident in his lengthy history as a former board director and volunteer for St John Ambulance Australia. In 2015, Justin was awarded the Ambulance Service Medal for his work in emergency management and virtual reality simulation.    

Tony was appointed Victoria’s first Inspector-General for Emergency Management in July 2014, an independent Governor in Council Statutory Appointment, working closely with emergency management sector partners and the community to strengthen Victoria's emergency management arrangements and enhance community safety.For nearly 40 years he has worked in intelligence, security and emergency/crisis management performing senior operational functions in a number of Victorian emergency service organisations before moving to senior crisis coordination and policy positions. Tony has held a number of senior roles in both state and federal government including 4 years in the role of Director-General, Emergency Management Australia. In this episode, we talk about the importance of debriefing to improving performance and how government goes about reviewing major events to learn the lessons to enhance our preparedness for the future. 

Tim Walmsley is a veteran and the founder and CEO of BenchOn, the world’s first Talent Sharing Platform. Heeding the call for business owners and entrepreneurs to share their ideas to help get us through this Crisis, Tim joins me to discuss how organisations can keep their workforce and share their skills rather than standing them down. We talk about how he came up with the idea for this world-first solution, the process he applied to developing his business plan, and how you can use his solution to help keep your people in jobs during these extremely challenging times.  A quintessential entrepreneur, Tim saw a problem and instead of accepting it, asked “Why cant we find a better way to manage it?” If your business is currently suffering from the COVID-19 slowdown, then please either register your business for free through www.benchon.com  or if you have a larger requirement such as bulk staff to redeploy or large numbers of positions to fill, please contact BenchOn directly at info@benchon.com  so they can create a tailored service to meet your current needs.

From the frontlines of the NZ SAS to the frontline of a global pandemic, Anaesthetist Bill Bestic has seen the best and worst of humanity and understands leadership during uncertainty. In this episode of Crisis Talks, Bill gives us a unique insight into the preparations that are underway in our hospitals, the fears of our medical staff and the courage people are showing every day as they prepare for the worst case.   “As a healthcare worker, I know exactly why I’m being Intubated. ‘Cos my lungs have failed and my fear then is if well my lungs have failed and I’m being put to sleep on a ventilator, there’s a possibility I'm not going to be waking up from this”. Faced with the question of his mortality and that of his colleagues, Bill shares his perspectives on courage, leadership and decision making in uncertainty. Bill gives a pretty raw assessment on his disappointment with the leadership being shown at the NSW and Federal government levels and compares this with the real clarity in communications as all levels in NZ. Equally, he shares his optimism on what we can learn and take stock of as a society once we get through this pandemic.

We are facing a societal reset that will force us to adapt to a new normal. In the second series of Crisis Talks, I’m calling on business owners, risk professionals, safety professionals, entrepreneurs, government and emergency services - Anyone with an idea they want to share on how to deal with this pandemic. I'm offering my Podcast, Crisis Talks as a platform to share your ideas about how we can best adapt to a new normal. It's time to mobilise our collective minds to combat this world pandemic.

With fires ravaging Australia and questions about the affect of climate change, I sat down with Craig Lapsley, the former Emergency Management Commissioner of Victoria to discuss the lessons learnt from fires in Australia over the past 40 years.  Craig’s work here and overseas, enables a unique perspective on how to best prepare for the fire threat and how we compare with other international response organisations.  Have we learnt from these lessons forged in fire?

If there’s nothing more Australian than strangers coming together to help others in their time of crisis, then there is no one more Australian than Darren Hodge. Darren has spent over thirty years in the Victoria Ambulance Service, now serving as one of the elite few MICA Flight Paramedics. In this episode of Crisis Talks, we explore some of the cases he wrote about in his book, ‘A Life on the Line’ and we talk about motivation, fear, failure, success and the chain of life.

“Our currency is empathy”. When social media erupted after the Gold’s bus crash in 2016, we turned to Clare Gleghorn, the CEO of Bastion Reputation Management for support. Clare shares her insights into the impact of social media outrage and how her team measures influence to ensure a balanced response in a crisis; how to manage reputational risk in the digital age; the importance of empathy; and how organisations can prepare for the worst case.

@Cyberhacker Podcaster and CEO of CTRLGroup, Bastien Treptel joins us this week to talk about Cyber Security. He describes some of the industrious ways that hackers and nefarious threats are targeting and accessing our data and what we can do to prevent, prepare and respond if a cyber crisis strikes.